What is the blessed life? What do we mean when we say "God Bless America" as we'll hear over and over this week? What are you asking for, when you ask for God's blessings? How many of those "blessings" can be reduced to materialism? How many of our requests for "blessings" include jobs, money, or housing? Then, once we get those things, how long does our feeling of "blessedness" last, before we start asking for more? 

As we read through the Gospels, we see Jesus intentionally provoking the religious Pharisees over and over, most often for their legalism. Why? Doesn't He know it makes them angry? Of course He does!  

Legalism repeatedly rears its ugly head, both in the Scriptures, and in our lives. Legalism divorces law from love, commandments from covenant. The reason why Jesus deals with legalism so often, is because every single one of us wrestles with it at some point, at least to some degree. How can you discern whether you struggle with legalism? Well, I'm glad you asked! 

How would you complete this sentence: Jesus came ______ ? To save sinners? To preach the Good News? To establish His Kingdom? To die on the cross? 

The Scriptures complete the sentence three ways: 

We're on the tail end of graduations and commencements, so this is the perfect time to be reminded of some bitter Ecclesiastes truth: It's all vanity! Sorry, not sorry. 

I've done the whole graduation ceremony a few times now, and every time, I've been blind-sided by the overwhelming melancholy. Graduation is supposed to be full of joy and the deep satisfaction of accomplishment. I've made it. I did it. It's done. All that toil was supposed to be rewarded with sheer ecstasy, but instead, there's this gnawing emptiness. What's up with that? Thousands are celebrating graduations in Boston, and I wonder how many allow themselves to be honest about the unwelcome sadness. 

We live at a weird time in human history. Society is over-sexualized and under-loved. We are simultaneously more connected and lonelier than ever. We have a basic human need for affection and touch and many of us are starving for it.

Does God have a plan for your life? Does He have different plans like Verizon (different levels or versions)? Is there a Plan A, Plan B, Plan C, etc?

If He does have a "Plan A" for your life, can I miss it? Jesus did teach us to pray, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." So if we have to pray for God's will to be done in our lives, is there some sense, some times, some ways, where I miss out on His Plan A? 

One of the more puzzling passages in the Gospels is found in John 14, when Jesus tells his followers, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.  If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it" (John 14:12-14). I've always wondered what that meant. Jesus healed lots of people and resurrected some: does that mean I'll heal lots of people and resurrect some? If I can't, is it just a lack of faith on my part? Jesus miraculously fed thousands: does that mean I'll do the same? That would be a useful trick to keep up my sleeve whenever the fridge is running empty (not to mention the whole water into wine situation).

As we finish up our "People Skills" sermon series tomorrow, we'll look at what Holy Scripture has to teach about parenting, and the child-parent relationship. In preparation for this sermon, I went through my "vault" of past sermons to see how I've approached this topic before. After a thorough search, I realized I have never preached a full sermon dedicated to parenting--partially because early on in the life of the church we didn't have that many kids, and partially because as a new dad, I was still figuring things out (on the job training). In the past couple years, the Lord has really blessed Mosaic with families and children (Mini-Mosaic is booming!!), and now that I've got four kids and almost a decade of parenting experience, I feel like I've got something to share!